Government has started work on how restrictions will be lifted – McEntee

The Justice Minister said t was important to 'get it right' with regard to quarantine restrictions for people arriving into the country. File picture: Denis Minihane

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said it would be important to take into account Covid trends when making plans to ease level 5 restrictions.

The Government has already commenced work on how restrictions will be lifted or eased, she told RTÉ radio’s News at One.

“We need to get people back to work, in a safe and gradual way.” 

Ms McEntee said the Government wanted to see a phased reopening of schools and that special classes and schools would reopen this month.

In the meantime, it was important to “get it right” with regard to quarantine restrictions for people arriving into the country. 

Ireland was engaging with UK and Northern Ireland officials, providing information on people arriving into the country who were then traveling onto the UK and the North. Passenger locator forms were being shared, she said.

Plans to introduce mandatory quarantine in specific locations were at an advanced stage, “we’re talking about a matter of weeks. There was a procurement process, identifying hotels, it was not just a case of introducing legislation," she explained.

“That information is being provided to the UK and they then are able apply measures on their side.

“It's not obviously straightforward, this is not something that we've done before, we're doing this on health grounds and it's important that we get this right.”